No role for blue hydrogen in carbon-free future – US academics
Fugitive methane emissions and failure to capture all carbon emissions undermine case for blue hydrogen as a low-carbon fuel option
Blue hydrogen has no role to play in a carbon-free future because of the “quite high” greenhouse gas emissions released during its production, claims an academic paper published this week. Production of blue hydrogen, which uses natural gas coupled with carbon capture and storage (CCS), creates a greenhouse gas footprint more than 20pc greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60pc greater than burning diesel oil for heat, according to the paper titled How green is blue hydrogen?, written by Robert Howarth of the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University and Mark Jacobson of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford Univ
Also in this section
5 December 2025
European Commission highlights rapid growth of Chinese production this year, as it retains strict procurement rules in latest European Hydrogen Bank subsidy auction
2 December 2025
Oil major cites deteriorating demand and a planning debacle as it abandons one of UK’s largest blue hydrogen projects
1 December 2025
Project at Emden in northwest Germany due online in 2027, but wider ramp-up of clean hydrogen sector in Germany will require overhaul of government policy, company warns
25 November 2025
The northwest African country’s vision of integrating green power, molecules and steel is alive and kicking, and serves as a reminder of hydrogen’s transformative potential






